Healing a Shattered Heart
by Michael J. O'Malley
Summary: Ryoma was betrayed by those he cared about, both his boyfriend and his team. He left Japan to 'recover', but did it actually help? After two years her returns, but he isn't the same. Everybody now thinks he betrayed Seigaku, and are out to get him. How will this turn out?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so chapter one, here we go!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Prince of Tennis . . . *sigh***

Chapter One

Ryo's POV (16 years old)

_I fell in love with Keigo. I fell in love with his arrogant smirk, his beautiful face, his striking purple eyes, everything. The love I felt for him built me up, then broke me down, broke me all the way down to my very core, down to my soul. And it hurt. It hurt more than anything I'd ever felt before._

_Keigo broke my heart, broke my soul, broke everything I was. Seigaku did too. Seigaku broke me. That hurt, it hurt like hell itself was bearing down on me. I was shattered beyond recognition, beyond recovery, by the people I cared about most._

~~A week before the Nationals in high school~~

I walked through the walls of the Atobe Mansion, making my way towards Keigo's room. I had gone there without telling him, planning to give my lover a surprise visit. What I found there that day completely stunned me. I opened the door to Keigo's room and walked in, only to see him kissing Yukimura Seiichi. I had walked in just I time to hear him gasp, "I love you, Sei."

They didn't notice me; too busy making out to notice anything around them. A choked gasp made its way out of me without permission, and the two separated in shock. "R-Ryoma," Keigo said, staring at me.

"You know," I began, ". . . you could've said something if you didn't want to be with me anymore." My tone was icy, but the tears that made their way down my face gave me away. I turned on my heels and ran away before Keigo could even utter a single word.

I dashed down the hallways, startling servants, but I ignored them. I finally made my way blindly to the staircase, not looking where I was going. My foot slipped on the top step and I tumbled down the stairs. "Ryoma-sama!" the butler cried. A maid and he rushed towards me, but I just stumbled to my feet and dashed away again.

It was raining outside, but I still ran, away from the Atobe estate, away from Keigo, away from my shattered heart until I finally made it to my house. I staggered into the house and slammed the door behind me without a greeting. My father made it to the entryway first.

He took in my bleeding and soaked form quickly, and, instead of being his usual teasing self, he pulled me into his arms. "Shh, it'll be okay. You don't need to cry," he whispered to me. It was only then that I realized I was crying. My mother made it to the entryway next.

She was stunned for a minute at the sight of her usually cocky and arrogant son bleeding and crying in the arms of her usually cocky and arrogant husband. She recovered quickly and pulled us into the living room. By this time I had gone completely numb, barely processing, or caring about, what was going on around me.

While my mother took care of my wounds and my father held me comfortingly they asked me questions, and I answered quietly. "I'll be fine," I said as my mother finished with the first aid kit and walked upstairs to my room. I locked the door behind me. I fell onto my bed, exhausted, and fell into a deep sleep.

~~After the Nationals~~

We ended up winning the Nationals in the high school division. In the past few weeks the other regulars had commented on how I'd been acting more secluded and antisocial then usual, but I gave them little to go on. The only thing I told them was that Keigo and I had broken up.

Now they were commenting on how I should be more excited about winning the Nationals, but I just ignored them, content with listening to there excited chatter. I got up, telling them I'd leave first and meet them at Kawamura's restaurant. They looked worried but I ignored the looks and left, until I remembered that I left my spare racquet at the stadium.

I stopped walking when I heard the regulars' voices, just out of sight. "Can we stop pretending now~?" I heard Eiji whine, and I froze. 'Pretending?' I thought, confused.

"Yeah, this is getting irritating, pretending to care about the brat. We had to do it even in middle school. Can't we stop now that we've won again?" This time it was Momo-senpai. My heart broke all over again. 'Even the only friends I've ever had never cared?' I thought miserably. I put up my mask and smirked, walking into the stadium.

"Ne, senpai-tachi, you should've told me if all you were going to do was use me. It hurts that you lied the whole time," I said, not quite lying. The other regulars looked stunned at my appearance. I took my regulars' jersey off and dropped it onto the ground, pouring the Ponta in my hand on it. "Thanks for nothing," I said quietly, my voice shaking, and walked away, leaving my stunned senpai in the stadium.

I calmly made my way home, or as calmly as I could, but when I walked in, I couldn't hold my tears back. I rushed up the stairs, ignoring the comments from my baka-oyaji. I slammed my bedroom door behind me and locked it, a sob bursting from my lips. I lost all of my composure right there, all of the weight put on me finally breaking me down.

At some point I became numb, and there were only tears, no sobs to accompany them. My father's arms wrapped around me again soon after that, and I told him what happened, my voice breaking multiple times. I heard him say something about moving to America to help me 'recover', before falling asleep, but I fell asleep with the knowledge that no one really cared about me, that no one ever would, that I was hated.

~~Two Years Later~~

I yawned as I made my way through the airport, having gotten no sleep for the past twenty-eight hours. I gracefully moved through the crowds of Tokyo National Airport and out to the entrance. It was 2:17 am, but the cabs were still going, so I called one up to take me to my apartment, where my stuff had been sent ahead of time.

It took a fifteen minute drive to get to the apartment building, and I gave the driver a five-thousand yen bill, telling him to keep the change. He went screeching down the street once I was safely on the sidewalk, my bag in hand. I sighed and made my way to my apartment room, pulling my hat down low over my eyes.

I walked up the metal stairs to the third floor and walked down the walkway. I bumped into someone and was sent to the ground. I looked up and glared, but my glare faltered when I saw who knocked me down. It was Shinji Ibu. He looked surprised to see me, and angry as well, though I wasn't sure why he would be angry with me.

He began rambling, "Oh, it's you Echizen. You're back. I can't believe you had the guts to come back to Japan after what you did. First you left Atobe-kun and broke him, and then you betrayed Seigaku. You didn't even come back when Atobe-kun got in that car accident and forgot everything about you. You really are a jerk. . .

I was stunned, only staring at him with shock and horror written all over my face. I didn't hear anything he said after 'everything but you'. Shinji stopped his rant abruptly at the look on my face. "You didn't know? Wow, you really _are _a jerk if you didn't even bother to check on him-"

"Shut up," I growled in a dangerously low voice. "Did any of them tell you I abandoned them, that _I_ was the betrayer, that I was the one to hurt _them _to your face? Did they?" I asked.

Shinji was speechless and said nothing for once, instead opting to study my dark expression. "Are you saying _they _hurt _you_?" he finally asked, slightly incredulous. I said nothing, getting up and walked down the open-air walkway with an irritated growl. I found my door and took the key out, unlocking it.

I slammed the door behind me and locked it, then rubbed my sore left arm in slight regret at slamming the door so hard. I dropped my bag by the door while ignored all of the packed boxes lining the hallway and made my way to the one marked 'bed stuff' (for lack of a better idea). I grabbed the sheets and blankets out of the box and strode into the bedroom.

Once the bed was made and the pillows were set on it. I flumped onto the bed with a sigh and drifted into a merciless sleep full of bad memories I wanted to keep locked away.

I woke up the next morning to someone ringing my doorbell and banging on my door. I groaned and sat up, then got out of bed and walked down the box filled hallway towards the front door. I swung the door open, irritation clear on my face, to see a distressed looking Tezuka. That seemed out of character for him, but I didn't care at that moment.

"What?" I said with an icy yet annoyed tone (if that's even possible).

"You're really back? Why?" he asked, regaining his composure.

"Who told you I was back?" I asked, not curious at all.

"Shinji told Tachibana who told me," Tezuka replied. I rolled my eyes and started closing the door on him, my patience reaching its end. Tezuka stopped the door and I said, "Why did you come here, _**Buchou**_?" I asked venomously, and he flinched slightly.

"I'm- no _we're_ sorry for what se did to you. The whole team regrets hurting you like that. Please, forgive us," Tezuka said.

"How do you even know that I'm hurt about that? For all you know, I could've been using you," I said indifferently, masking my anger.

"Nanjirou-san called and told us about what happened after you left," he said quietly.

"I could never forgive you for that," I said, and promptly slammed the door in his face with my right hand. I sighed and looked at the time on my phone, which was still in my pocket. It was 4:49 p.m., and that meant I had gotten fourteen hours of sleep, even though I still felt exhausted.

I groaned slightly at the sight of all the boxes and got to work on unpacking everything, wanting to get it over with. It took three hours to get all of my things put away properly, and I was now both physically and mentally exhausted. My left arm throbbed with pain, and I grimaced, not wanting to remember that day.

I took the now empty boxes out to the trash bin behind the apartment building and walked back to my apartment, being careful to make sure there was no one I knew lurking around any corners. Once I was back in my apartment, I walked into the bathroom and turned the hot water in the shower on.

I grabbed a towel from under the sink and stripped myself of my clothes while the water heated up. I glanced at my arms and gave a slightly pained sigh at all of the scars covering them. I looked back up from my arms and made sure the water was hot enough before I stepped in the shower.

I washed my body, avoiding sensitive areas of my arms, and my hair slowly, reveling in the comforting warmth of the hot water. I finished cleaning myself and turned the water off, stepping out of the shower. I dried my body, and grabbed another towel to dry my dripping hair. Once I was dry enough, I secured the towel around my waist and slipped out of the bathroom.

I made my way to my bedroom and grabbed some underwear, black jeans, and a long sleeved white t-shirt, dressing myself quickly. I fell back onto my bed and closed my eyes, but I knew that it would be awhile before I could sleep, having woken up only three and a half hours before. I opened my eyes and sat up on the bed at the sound of my growling stomach.

I got off the bed and walked into the kitchen to make some food when the doorbell sounded again. I made an irritated noise in the back of my throat and ignored the door, taking out an instant ramen bowl.

I slammed the door of the microwave closed once the food was in and practically punched the numbers in. "Godammit that's annoying!" I muttered to myself. I strode through the house to the door and opened it to see Keigo.

**Okay do that's one chapter done. Please review and PM to tell me how it is. I'll take requests for the story or for other stories if you want. Thanks for reading and keep a look out!**

**Dragneellover out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm a horrible person, I know. I should've updated A LOT sooner, but I lost inspiration and the will to write, along with my little friend named procrastination. Please forgive me! *bows deeply* **

***takes deep breath* Here goes!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.**

**-PoT—PoT—PoT-**

**Kei's POV**

When I heard that Ryo was back in town I found out where he was living and rushed to his apartment, running apology after apology through my head. I knew it would take so much more than an apology to get Ryo's forgiveness, but I had to let him know that I was sorry. If I didn't I would never forgive myself. I forced myself to calm down and think clearly when I was finally standing in front of the apartment door.

I took three deep breaths, still running apologies through my head. I knocked on the door, expecting Ryo to open it, but after a couple of minutes there was no answer. I kept knocking, hoping that the door would finally open so I could see my beautiful Ryo.

Finally the door opened. I opened my mouth to beg him to forgive me, but my breath caught in my throat when I saw him. He was beautiful. More so than he had been when he'd disappeared. It wasn't just what changed that made me stop talking. The complete and utter shock that was in his eyes, the agony, stopped me from saying anything.

It was as if Ryo's eyes were shattered, pale golden glass. They were broken. I wanted so badly to take my kitten into my arms and hold him and tell him everything was okay, and my body was screaming at me to do so, but I knew that would accomplish nothing but more distrust.

"K-Kei?" Ryo stuttered, a questioning tone with sadness leaking through.

"Hey, Ryo," I said softly.

A sudden hard glare. It made me more comfortable. I was more familiar with this. "Explain," he said, his voice just as hard as his glare. The raven gestured for me to go into his apartment.

I walked in hesitantly. There were boxes, some full and some empty, stacked up against the walls. I was pushed down on the couch, and then Ryo disappeared into the kitchen. A couple of minutes later he came back with a cup of coffee and a water bottle. He handed me the coffee, and I found that it was made just the way I liked it.

I repressed a smile when I realized he still remembered how I like my coffee. "Explain," Ryo demanded again, this time with a softer tone.

I didn't, couldn't, look at his face, fearing the look that would be there. "I . . . I don't know," I began. "I just . . . I'm sorry."

An exasperated sigh and a mocking laugh. "You don't know why you cheated on your boyfriend?!" I winced at Ryo's accusatory tone. "You're an idiot, Atobe Keigo. A complete and utter idiot! You didn't even love me in the first place did you? I was just something you could use for as long as you were interested, then you could throw me away like a piece of trash. All of those time you told me you loved me were just sweet lies that would make me fall into your trap! It was all lies, wasn't it?!"

I was in shock. I didn't know what to make of Ryo's outburst. "N-no. Ryo, I-"

"Don't." His tone was pained and angry. "You're telling me that you love me even though you cheated on me with Yukimura? How can you even begin to apologize for something like that?"

"I can't," I whispered, rubbing my face. "There's no way to begin apologizing, but I want you to know that I _am _sorry. You're right. I'm a complete idiot for even thinking about doing that, and I don't deserve your forgiveness. I just need you to _know. _Because if I left here without you knowing I would never let myself live it down. I'm sorry, Ryoma."

He was silent. "I don't think I could ever forgive you for that. But this is a start." Hope bloomed in my chest. "How do I know you won't do it again? How do I know that you won't go back to him and cheat again?"

I couldn't take it anymore. "He forced me to," I blurted.

"What?!" Ryo exclaimed with an incredulous tone. "You really expect me to believe that clichéd excuse?!"

"I'm not lying," I whispered, complete honesty and sincerity in my voice. "He told me that if I didn't pretend to cheat with him then he would make sure you'd never be able to play tennis again. Apparently he's still mad at you for beating him in the middle school nationals. I knew how much tennis meant to you so I did it."

**-PoT—PoT—PoT-**

**Ryo's POV**

My eyes widened when I heard that. And then a bitter smile played on my lips. '_It's too late for that. I can't play anymore anyway,' _I thought, and tears formed in my eyes.

"You're an idiot, baka Monkey King," I muttered, and my tears started falling. Somehow he heard that.

A gasp escaped Kei's lips. I wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. I forgave him. I forgave him because instead of thinking about himself, he thought about me. And that made me happy. But these tears were anything but. They were tears that said his efforts to keep my career on track went to waste.

Kei whispered reassurances in my ear, rubbing my back and carding a hand through my hair. I let myself sob all of the pain I'd felt for so long out, let the man I loved comfort me for the first time in years. After an undeterminable amount of time, my tears stopped and I let Kei hold me in his arms, letting myself finally feel at peace for once.

"I love you," Kei whispered in my ear. I smiled again, this one happy.

"I love you too, Kei," I said into his shirt, my words muffled.

My smile dissipated. "Kei, I need to tell you something," I said, pulling out of his arms.

"What is it?" he asked, pushing my chin up and forcing me to look into his eyes.

I took a deep breath, seeking comfort in his silver-purple eyes that practically glowed with love. "I can't play tennis anymore."

Kei looked stunned. "Wha . . . how?"

"A bad tennis game. The guy got too excited, and ended up hitting the ball so hard at my right arm that it broke it. And then he continued to hit tennis balls at me until I was unconscious. After that, they told me it would be impossible for me to play tennis ever again." I let no emotions into my voice. "It's fine, though. As long as I have you, I'm fine."

Kei blushed at those words, and I smirked. "Look, I made _Ore-sama _blush." His blush deepened even further.

He leaned down and kissed me passionately. I came up for air breathing heavily and red faced. "Look," he whispered, "I made _Echizen _blush." I smirked and pushed him down on the couch.

"I bet I can make you blush again," I said seductively.

**-PoT—PoT—PoT-**

**No, that's not the end of the story, if any of you thought so. We still have the matter of Seigaku to deal with. Thanks so much for reading, and keep a look out for the next chapter. I'll be updating some things from the last chapter, and tweaking the summary, so please don't be alarmed if they're changed. Again, I'm so sorry for not updating WAY sooner. I'll try and be faster about it this time.**

**Favorite, follow, review, and PM me! I'm taking requests for side pairs and such so nows your chance. Until next time . . .**

**~O'Malley out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So I'm assuming that the people want me to keep the original since I got more votes for the original than for the rewrite. Here's chapter three!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis**

**-PoT—PoT—PoT-**

**Ryo's POV**

_All that could be heard as we raced from one place to another on the tennis court was our labored breathing, the tennis ball hitting our rackets, and the wind howling. There was a giant storm brewing, and thunder boomed every few minutes. As the game continued, and neither of us relented in our attack, rain started falling from the black clouds, pelting us like bullets._

_Soon the both of us were soaked to the bone, yet we didn't stop playing. The tennis ball bounced off the ground and flew towards my face. I quickly swung my body back to an angle where I could hit the ball back with lethal accuracy. It bounced and flew in a direction the man hadn't been anticipating. _

_It flew to the right and hit him in the wrist, above the hand that held his racket. He almost dropped the racket from the force of the hit, but held on. The ball dropped to the ground and bounced a couple of times, making the puddles of water splash._

_That was game point. I won. I suppressed my triumphant grin, instead smirking in an arrogant way, aware of how much it irked the man. He sneered, cradling his injured wrist to his chest. I turned around and walked to the edge of the court, putting all of my things away and pulling my soaked black jacket over my tennis clothes. _

_I started walking away, still not looking back, and said loudly, so as to be heard over the storm, "Mada mada dane." I was shocked out of my contented feeling when I felt something hit me hard and painfully in the middle of my back, forcing me onto my knees. And suddenly I was being pelted with hard objects, tennis balls I eventually gathered, and I could do nothing to stop it._

_I curled up in a ball and shielded my head with my arms. The tennis balls stopped after about twenty minutes, and a cold and cruel laugh floated through the curtain of rain and thunder. I looked up through my blood-soaked bangs to see the man that I had just beaten smirking mockingly at me. _

_Before I could say or do anything he drew the arm with the tennis racket back and swung it down at me. And the beating continued. He punched and kicked and hit me continuously until I couldn't breathe and my vision was swimming. Blood dripped into my eyes. I was brought out of my half-conscious state when a loud crack was heard and pain exploded in my left arm. _

_I cried out, pain consuming me. I started crying, sobbing even, from the pain assaulting me from every direction. I faintly heard yells, shouts of my name and cries of alarm, but I didn't react. I just played it off as the wind or my concussed mind playing tricks on me. I thought I was going to die. I was in so much pain that I _wanted _to just die. _

_It hurt too much, and from the pain in my arm I could deduce that I wouldn't be able to play tennis for a long time, if ever again. I couldn't live with that. I couldn't live without being able to play the only thing tying me to the world. _

_All of a sudden the beating stopped and gentle hands were running over my body and taking in the extent of my injuries. I finally lost consciousness as I was put into the ambulance. _

**-PoT—PoT—PoT-**

**Kei's POV**

I was awoken from my deep slumber by Ryo thrashing around and crying. I immediately went to restrain him, pinning his arms down next to his head and keeping his legs still by trapping them with my own. I was immensely worried, wondering what could have cause my kitten to have a dream this bad.

Two years before he rarely had nightmares, and when he did they were only minor and not a big deal. Eventually he stopped thrashing, and only laid there, tears leaking down his face and whimpers escaping him. Pain was evident on his face.

I quickly gathered him into my arms, whispering sweet nothings to him in an attempt to soothe him. "Ryoma, wake up. It's okay. You'll be okay. Just wake up." After ten more minutes of coaxing him into awareness, his eyes fluttered opened with a confused look.

"Kei?" he asked, and his voice broke. My heart clenched at the sound.

I kissed him gently on the lips and whispered, "Finally, you've woken up. I was worried when you started thrashing around like that. What were you dreaming about?" My tone was gentle and patient.

Ryo bit his lip and looked away, obviously uncomfortable with the topic. I kissed him again, this time on the forehead, to try and get him to open up to me. Finally, he said, "About the match. The one where I lost my ability to play tennis."

Underneath my calm mask my blood boiled. I wanted to murder whoever did that to my little lover, but I had to be there in that moment to comfort him. "It's okay. It's over now," I said, hugging the raven tightly. "_You're _okay, right?"

Ryo nodded, his head shifting from its position at the crook of my neck. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while, soaking in the warmth of each other, but that silence was broken by the doorbell going off. I growled in the back of my throat, wanting to throttle whoever interrupted our peaceful morning.

"I'll get it," I whispered, getting out of bed and swooping down to give Ryo a chaste kiss. I pulled my underwear and pants on, then went to the front door. I opened it and saw a guilty looking Seigaku standing at the entrance.

"Echi-" Tezuka cut himself off when he saw me shirtless in Ryo's apartment.

"What do you want?" I asked with a tone that dripped annoyance.

"Atobe? I thought you and Echizen broke up two years ago," Inui inquired, pulling out his trusty notebook.

I went to slam the door in their faces, but Fuji quickly slipped his foot in the gap before I could fully close it and pried the door from my grasp. "We just came to talk with Echizen."

I opened my mouth to make a smart ass retort, but was quickly interrupted by Ryo, who was shirtless as well, though wearing blue jeans. "And I don't want to talk to you. So please leave."

"Just hear us out," Tezuka blurted uncharacteristically. "We only wanted to apologize for what we did in high school, and invite you to the tennis team at the local college. You would get a full scholarship and all. Just please forgive us."

I was confused. What did they have to apologize for that happened in high school? "What, so you can use me again?" Ryo asked, bringing me back to the present. "So that you can win the nationals, then throw me away like a piece of trash? No, not again. I won't let you do that to me again. Go find someone else to use." And with that Ryo slammed the door in their faces—just as I wanted to do—before they could react.

**-PoT—PoT—PoT-**

**There's chapter three for you. I hope you enjoyed. Keep reading, favorite, follow, whatever. Do what you want. Until next time . . . **

**~O'Malley out!**


	4. Author's Note

**My awesome readers,**

**I'm sorry to say that I won't be updating this story for a while. I'm going to try focusing on one story at a time so that I'm not updating random ones at random times. I'm not discontinuing this story, but it will be a while before I update again.**

**I'm really sorry about this. Just please don't unfollow this because it's not ending here. And sorry to anyone who thought this was a chapter, but I swear that this story will update at one point or another. **

**Just a heads up for the story I'm working on now, which is 'Broken Soul'. I have about one sentence for it so far, so it may be a little bit for that one too, accounting the fact that I don't have much time to write due to school. **

**Sorry again, and thanks for reading this.**

**~O'Malley out!**


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